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Allied Midsourceland Territories
The Allied Midsourceland Territories (AMT), often referred to as "the Territories" or "the Midlands", is a fictional union of self-governing territories in the Source Lands Setting, occupying just under a fourth of the North Sourceland Continent, specifically the southern most part. The AMT, toward the middle of the Colonial Era, becomes part of the United Republics of North Sourceland (URN), and by extension, part of the Orlesian Commonwealth. History The Midlands were not settled until the beginning of the Colonial Era, and was first settled by Noverra in their push to reach the Riveran North Sourceland Colony, which formed a farming belt across the continent, largely motivated by their lack of infrastructure in their greater colony and a need for food, but there was also another reason why it was decided to settle the Midlands - namely the metaphorical Gold-Rush for the Skylands that started the Colonial Era, and a desire to control the surrounding lands to prevent other powers from colonizing the Skylands. Standing Orders The history of the Midlands as a settled and civilized region, begins with a wager made between King Leopold II of Noverra and King Aaker III of Rivera, who had just signed a peace agreement after lengthy trade-related wars. The wager was to see who could colonize more land in the New-World, and both parties agreed to expand in toward each other, with the wager being settled when they bordered against each other. Neither King lived to see this wager through, but generations later, the dedicated Noverran Military still had it as a standing order, and were very close to completing their mission. First Midland War The First Midland war started when Orlais responded to the Noverran expansion into North-Sourceland Continent, which they did both because of the military's standing order to work toward Riveran lands, and because they desperately needed access to a trading partner who could sell them food locally - and of course to cut competitors off from access to the Skylands. Orlesian Response Orlais had to move quickly and wedged themselves in between Rivera and the expanding Novenarran Settlers, enraging the Noverrans, who could not however not defeat the Orlesians in the field, due to the Orlesians having superior weaponry, so they build up massive naval fortifications around Segovia, the capital of the Midlands, and hunkered down, figuring the Orlesians would soon be forced to abandon their new hastily taken territory, just south of Rivera. Narrow Victory Orlais went all in, and marched in and took the region by force, suffering such losses that they were forced to leave just under half of the region occupied by enemies (later known as Novenarra), but they controlled Segovia, which was all they really needed. Land Barons The Officers who had lead the battles were awarded incredible amounts of land, and given total ruler ship over this, though they were themselves, still subject of the crown. They became the first Land Barons. Unfortunately, this did not sit well with the courts, and the King was heavily criticized for this decision, leading to him attempting to recall it, and this ultimately planted the seed of secession among the Land Barons, who started plotting and preparing for secession. Formation of the Allied Midsourceland Territories The Midlands were basically developing lands in their early years - large amounts of farming across the Grand Prairie, but there were also extremely many factories around Segovia and scattered through out the small towns, and while the industrial sector was dwarfed in comparison to Nova-Orlais or Orlais itself for that matter, the Midlands was where new inventions came about, where Source Corporations worked and where most advanced weaponry and Source Technology was developed, and having found an important niche, the Land Barons came together and formed a formal republic, namely the AMT. Second through fourth Midland Wars The Midlands fought a number of wars against Novenarra, all three started by Novenarra in attempts to reconquer the Midlands for Noverra, though being entirely Proxy-Wars. Orlaid refused to aid in these wars, because the Land Barons had been given total dominion over their individual swaths of land, and this meant they were not entitled to military aid - in truth just another strategy to twist the arm of the Midland Land Barons. The Fifth Midland War Eventually, the AMT delivered its formal declaration of secession and soon after, the Fifth Midland War began. It was a slow war, as Orlais faced the same problem it had faced when they initially took Segovia - namely that they could not do so from the ocean, and were forced to attack from land - but the AMT had been preparing for this war for decades and had so many fortifications that the war proved particularly difficult, and ultimately, very few battles actually took place and Orlais instead found a way to prevent an alliance between the AMT and Noverra as well as Novenarra, thus cutting the AMT off entirely, and utilizing some allied Land Barons on the inside to sabotage the delicate economy of the AMT and cause a food shortage, the AMT soon had to capitulate, but were offered extremely generous terms of surrender, specifically to prevent another secession attempt in the future - and thus, the AMT became a part of the URN, becoming the largest and most powerful republic in the URN. * The world as a whole knows this war as "The Fifth Midland War", but in the Orlesian Commonwealth, it is known exclusively as the "Midland Rebellion", and so there is some general confusion when reading history books, as the 6th Midland War, that saw Novenarra become part of the URN, is known as the Fifth Midland War in the Orlesian Commonwealth. * Many have criticized the way the Fifth Midland War ended, claiming it was an overwhelming sign of weakness from Orlais' side, but others recognize the wisdom in offering a diplomatic surrender to the AMT, who were only defeated due to temporary food-shortages. It is likely that the AMT could have lasted through another winter and solved their internal problems, thus bouncing back, but by offering the fatigued faction a very favorable deal, it suddenly became a lucrative option to join the Commonwealth. The Sixth Midland War A few decades after the Fifth Midland War had ended, the Sixth Midland War ensued, and was between the URN (specifically the AMT) and Novenarra. The purpose of war was to prevent Noverra from utilizing their Novenarran Protectorate to sabotage Orlesian efforts to win the war of Skylands, and gain total control of the Midlands. This was the final Midland War, and ended with total victory of the URN, which adopted Novenarra as their newest Republic, becoming the second largest republic in the URN.